The present invention relates to a method of assisting the operator of a vehicle, in an environment of high psychological and/or physiological pressure, to make correct decisions about the operation of the vehicle. In particular, the present invention relates to the presentation of operational options to the pilot of a combat aircraft.
Although the scope of the present invention includes vehicular operation generally, the primary application of the present invention is to combat aircraft. Therefore, the operator of a vehicle is referred to herein as a “pilot”, and the examples herein are directed towards aerial combat.
Aerial combat is an archtypical high pressure environment. A combat pilot must be aware at all times of factors related to the combat mission such as the targets available or designated for attack, the on-board resources available to attack these targets, the amount of fuel remaining on board relative to both attack opportunities and the need to return to base, enemy threats such as antiaircraft installations, and weather. Cockpit instrumentation provides the pilot with raw data related to these factors. The pilot must synthesize the information presented by the instrumentation and decide, based on the information, how to conduct the mission: which target to attack, how to approach the target, and whether to abort the mission. The overall situation is extremely fluid. For example, a potential target, such as an enemy aircraft, may at any time change from a target to a threat. Furthermore, in addition to the psychological stress of combat, a combat pilot is subject to physiological stresses such as high G-forces during high speed maneuvers. Studies of the abilities of combat pilots to cope with these stresses include Judi E. See and Michael A. Vidulich, “Computer modeling of operator mental workload and situational awareness in simulated air-to-ground combat: an assessment of predictive value”, The International Journal of Avialion Psychology, vol. 8 no. 4 pp. 351–375; David G. Newman and Robin Callister, “Analysis of the Gz environment during air combat maneuvering in the F/A-18 fighter aircraft”, Aviation, Space, and Environmental Medicine vol. 70 no. 4 (1999); and “Military monitors”, Flighit International 1, January 2000, pp. 58–59. These studies tend to support the proposition that a combat pilot often is a victim of information overload. For example, while maneuvering to escape an air-to-ground missile, a pilot could easily fail to notice that he is about to crash into the ground.
There is thus a widely recognized need for, and it would be highly advantageous to have, a method of synthesizing the information available to a combat pilot to assist the pilot in making decisions in real time.